Digital Transformation Priorities Across Channels (2026)

Many enterprise commerce leaders manage direct-to-consumer (DTC), wholesale, business-to-business (B2B), and retail sales channels simultaneously. Each channel has different operational requirements, customer expectations, and supporting technology. For commerce leaders responsible for digital transformation, the challenge becomes prioritizing which initiative should move first, and how to justify that sequence across competing business priorities.

Many brands also rely on fragmented technology stacks. Legacy platforms and disconnected applications add complexity across channels. KPMG found that 48% of consumer and retail leaders say the cost of fixing technical debt has prevented investment in new technology programs. When each channel has its own revenue model, stakeholders, and technology needs, that complexity can make prioritization harder and delay investment decisions.

This guide provides a commerce-specific framework for setting digital transformation priorities across multiple sales channels. It covers how to evaluate initiatives, prioritize investments, sequence channel transformation, and build a board-ready business case for executive leadership. 

Why digital transformation frameworks can fall short for commerce

Many digital transformation frameworks focus on managing organizational change and reducing implementation risk. They are designed to work across a wide range of initiatives, from implementing collaboration software to migrating infrastructure or deploying enterprise applications. But they often focus on technical considerations, including security, governance, process design, data migration, and user adoption.

Those capabilities are essential, but they don't answer the question commerce leaders face first: Which transformation initiative should the business prioritize to create the greatest impact?

Why commerce needs a different approach

Commerce technology investments shape how the business sells, serves customers, and grows. The order in which initiatives are prioritized can influence revenue, operational efficiency, customer experience, and future expansion. 

Transformation priorities should reflect the business model, sales channels, and customer experience an organization wants to build. In commerce, technology decisions have a direct business impact, making digital transformation a commercial strategy rather than a standalone implementation project. 

Many foundational capabilities, including AI-readiness, governance, and infrastructure modernization, can also be outcomes of larger platform decisions. Moving to a unified commerce platform, for example, can establish the technical foundation for future initiatives while reducing the need for separate transformation projects across each channel.

How channel silos complicate digital transformation priorities

Prioritization becomes more difficult when DTC, wholesale, B2B, and retail each operate on separate technology stacks. Evaluating initiatives one channel at a time can overlook opportunities to consolidate systems, reduce operational complexity, and support multiple channels with a shared platform.

When transformation is limited to isolated upgrades or replacing individual systems, organizations improve one part of the business while leaving larger operational challenges in place. A more strategic approach evaluates transformation priorities across every sales channel before investment decisions are made.

Improving one channel at the expense of another can also create inconsistent customer experiences. A business that modernizes its DTC storefront while leaving B2B buyers on outdated systems may improve one revenue stream while failing to address friction in another.

Looking across every channel together makes it easier to identify which transformation initiatives should take priority before investment decisions are made.

The real challenge: Four channels, one budget

Enterprise businesses often fund digital transformation through a single investment budget shared across DTC, wholesale, B2B, and retail initiatives. Even organizations with only two or three active sales channels face competing priorities, limited resources, and different definitions of success.

In many organizations, each channel has different stakeholders, objectives, and performance metrics. A CTO may prioritize integration, scalability, and security, while a CFO focuses on implementation cost and expected return. But executive leadership evaluates these trade-offs based on shared business outcomes.

Setting digital transformation priorities across every sales channel helps connect technology investments to measurable business results and makes it easier to build the case for executive approval.

How to audit your channels to prioritize transformation

Before prioritizing digital transformation initiatives, evaluate each sales channel independently and then compare them as a connected commerce operation. The audit highlights which initiatives deserve investment first based on business impact, cross-channel value, and implementation effort. 

Direct-to-Consumer (DTC)

For many businesses, DTC is the primary source of first-party customer data and the fastest place to test new digital experiences. That can make DTC a higher priority when improvements to customer experience, conversion, or data collection can support other channels. 

Evaluate:

• Friction points in the current technology stack
• The end-to-end customer journey, from product discovery through checkout
• How first-party customer data is collected, unified, and used
• Opportunities to test incremental improvements before larger platform changes
• Site performance, merchandising capabilities, and content management
• Customer feedback, retention, and repeat purchasing

Insights from the DTC channel can influence transformation priorities across the rest of the business. Improvements to customer data, search, personalization, or checkout can support wholesale, B2B, and retail initiatives when they're built on shared systems.

Wholesale

Wholesale operations prioritize efficiency, partner relationships, and order management. An audit identifies areas of manual work, as well as where technology limits the business’s ability to support distributor partnerships.

During this phase, assess:

• Manual processes across ordering and account management
• Operational bottlenecks that increase processing time
• Opportunities for distributor self-service
• Integration between wholesale systems and the broader commerce platform
• Inventory and pricing synchronization across channels
• Visibility into partner performance and order data

Wholesale transformation projects focus on reducing operational effort while improving the experience for distributors and internal teams. They can also support broader platform consolidation when wholesale systems share data with DTC, B2B, and retail operations.

Business-to-Business (B2B)

B2B buying journeys frequently involve negotiated pricing, purchase orders, approvals, and repeat purchasing. Those requirements introduce complexity, but they also create opportunities to digitize manual workflows that consume time for both buyers and internal teams.

Take time to document:

• Manual touchpoints throughout the purchasing process
• Buyer account structures and permission management
• Self-service ordering and reordering capabilities
• Quote, invoice, and purchase order workflows
• Integration with enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and inventory systems
• The digital experience for existing customers

Research from TrustRadius found that 100% of B2B buyers surveyed wanted the option to complete at least part of the purchasing process through self-service. Gartner has also reported that 75% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience. For businesses with growing B2B revenue, those expectations can make self-service capabilities a higher transformation priority.

Retail (point-of-sale/POS)

Physical retail depends on the same customer, inventory, and order data that powers ecommerce. A disconnected POS system can limit the value of digital transformation investments across every other channel.

Evaluate the physical retail channel for:

• Potential for connected experiences such as BOPIS and ship-from-store
• Inventory synchronization between stores and ecommerce
• Customer profiles shared across online and in-store purchases
• Order management across channels
• Digital tools for clienteling and assisted selling
• Reporting and analytics across physical and digital channels

The retail channel often reveals how unified the broader commerce operation has become. Businesses that share customer, inventory, and order data across channels can introduce new experiences more quickly than organizations managing separate systems.

How Rémy Cointreau prioritized unified ecommerce and POS

Rémy Cointreau, a luxury spirits brand, used digital transformation to unify their ecommerce and retail operations. After migrating to Shopify, the business connected ecommerce and Shopify POS on a shared back end, allowing teams to manage online and in-store experiences from the same system.

Within a year, Rémy Cointreau launched 15 online storefronts across France, the UK, Germany, and other markets. The unified platform also made it easier to launch pop-up stores and support new campaigns.

“In a matter of seconds, we can support new ideas,” said Pasqual Ortuño Núñez, group IT digital director for Rémy Cointreau.

Rémy Cointreau's investment in a unified ecommerce and retail platform gave the business greater flexibility to expand into new markets and launch new retail experiences without managing separate systems.

Prioritizing digital transformation initiatives across channels

Once the audit is complete, compare opportunities across every sales channel rather than evaluating them in isolation. This makes it easier to identify initiatives that support multiple parts of the business, reduce duplicate technology investments, or deliver the greatest business impact.

The right sequence depends on the organization's revenue mix, operational challenges, and long-term strategy. A DTC-first roadmap isn't right for every business, just as a B2B-first or unified commerce strategy won't fit every organization. The following sections outline situations where each approach may be the strongest starting point.

When to prioritize DTC

Prioritizing DTC makes sense when the online storefront is the primary revenue channel or serves as the foundation for customer acquisition and first-party data collection.

Modernizing the storefront can improve product discovery, checkout, customer data, and merchandising capabilities while supporting future initiatives across B2B, retail, and wholesale. Shared capabilities, including identity, search, and customer profiles, can then be reused across multiple channels.

This approach works best for businesses where DTC represents the largest growth opportunity or where the customer experience has become a competitive constraint. It may be a lower priority for organizations with mature DTC operations or businesses that generate most of their revenue through wholesale or B2B relationships.

When to prioritize B2B

B2B transformation deserves priority when sales teams spend significant time on manual ordering, account management, quotes, or repeat purchases that buyers could complete independently.

Adding self-service capabilities can reduce administrative work, improve the buying experience, and allow sales teams to focus on higher-value customer relationships instead of transactional tasks.

This approach is a good fit for manufacturers, distributors, and brands with growing B2B revenue, especially when DTC capabilities are already mature or customer expectations have shifted toward digital purchasing.

When unified commerce should come first

Some brands reach a point where incremental improvements become slow and costly to deliver because disconnected systems have accumulated technical debt across the commerce stack. IT teams spend more time maintaining brittle integrations, reconciling data, and supporting custom code than delivering new capabilities. As maintenance costs increase, even relatively small initiatives take longer to plan, build, and launch.

At the same time, customer expectations continue to rise. McKinsey describes today's "zero consumer" as someone who expects consistent experiences across physical and digital channels and readily switches brands when those expectations aren't met. Fragmented technology can make it difficult to deliver those consistent experiences when customer, product, inventory, and order data are spread across multiple systems.

In these situations, a unified commerce platform becomes the highest-priority transformation initiative. By bringing core commerce capabilities onto shared infrastructure, organizations can simplify operations, reduce technical complexity, and create a common foundation for future improvements. New capabilities can then be introduced across multiple channels without requiring separate implementations for each one.

Molson Coors used DTC to respond to changing consumer behavior

Molson Coors illustrates how DTC can become the highest-priority initiative when a business needs to reach consumers through new channels. Historically focused on wholesale distribution, they faced significant disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic as in-person purchasing declined.

Using Shopify, they launched the Ship and Sip program and deployed an ecommerce delivery site in 10 days. Sales increased 188% month over month. They later expanded the program with additional direct-to-consumer campaigns, including limited releases tied to national events such as Canada's Hockey Day.

"The Ship and Sip launch is a great example of how large organizations can mobilize quickly. Molson Coors recognized the incredible revenue opportunity that would otherwise pass them by had they waited to navigate organizational barriers common to many large organizations," said Nadine Iacocca, partner and chief strategy and growth officer at Stream Commerce.

Choosing the right transformation priority by business need 

The examples above illustrate common starting points. The table below summarizes which transformation priority is typically the best fit for different business challenges . 

Every transformation initiative begins with a different business challenge. Some organizations prioritize DTC to accelerate customer acquisition or establish new revenue channels. Others reach a point where supporting multiple business models, markets, or channels becomes the greater constraint. The following example shows how those changing priorities can lead an organization to make unified commerce the next stage of its transformation roadmap.

How Who Is Elijah unified B2B and DTC on one platform 

Perfume retailer Who Is Elijah began as a DTC business on Salesforce Commerce Cloud. As wholesale sales grew, the company needed technology that could support different pricing, product catalogs, and purchasing experiences for both DTC and B2B customers.

Their first ecommerce platform made it difficult to support wholesale segmentation, international expansion, and growing order volumes. The business also needed localized pricing, taxes, and storefront experiences across multiple markets.

Who Is Elijah consolidated their B2B and DTC operations on Shopify, launching localized storefronts in the UK, the US, and New Zealand alongside dedicated B2B storefronts for wholesale customers. The unified platform allowed the team to manage regional pricing, customer-specific catalogs, and differentiated buying experiences from a single back end. It also reduced the need for extensive developer support to manage customer-specific pricing and regional storefronts.

"One of the reasons we needed custom pricing for our wholesale customers was that many of them fall into different B2B categories; some have hard margins, and some we can control. The custom catalog capabilities in B2B on Shopify meant we could set individual pricing categories and attach them to the various types of B2B customers we have so they get a more personalized experience," said Brylee Lonesborough, technical leader at Who Is Elijah.

Who Is Elijah's experience reflects how transformation priorities change as business needs evolve. Once wholesale growth, international expansion, and differentiated buying experiences became the primary challenges, unified commerce became the logical next priority. Consolidating B2B and DTC on Shopify gave the business the capabilities needed to support both channels from a single platform.

How to build a business case for digital transformation priorities

Once transformation priorities have been established, the conversation shifts from planning initiatives to securing investment. Executive stakeholders evaluate transformation through different lenses, but they share a common goal: understanding how the investment will affect business performance.

To build support across leadership, connect each proposed initiative to financial and commercial outcomes before presenting it to leadership. The table below highlights the metrics different stakeholders are most likely to use when evaluating digital transformation investments.

The metrics that matter to executive leadership

The strongest business case ties channel results to the metrics leaders already use to judge performance. Instead of focusing on technical milestones, explain how the initiative will affect revenue, costs, and how quickly it will deliver results.

Account for the cost of inaction

Evaluating return on investment (ROI) means looking beyond implementation costs. Delaying a transformation initiative also has financial consequences, particularly when legacy systems increase maintenance costs, disconnected platforms create operational inefficiencies, or customer expectations continue to evolve. Over time, those costs accumulate, creating what many organizations describe as an "inaction tax": the compounding cost of maintaining existing technology while postponing transformation. 

One way to communicate that impact is to estimate the cost of maintaining the current environment over the next 12 to 24 months and compare it with the projected cost and benefits of the proposed transformation. 

The comparison includes:

• The ongoing cost of the current technology stack
• The investment required to implement the transformation
• The expected time-to-value
• The business outcomes expected after implementation

Presenting both the investment and the cost of delaying it gives executive stakeholders a clearer picture of the tradeoffs involved and helps connect technology decisions to financial outcomes.

A digital transformation priority checklist

Digital transformation priorities evolve as the business, technology stack, and market change. Use this checklist to organize assessments, align stakeholders, sequence investments, and measure progress throughout the transformation process.

Phase 1: Audit and establish a baseline

• Assess every sales channel using a common evaluation framework.
• Document the current technology stack and system dependencies.
• Establish baseline business and operational metrics.
• Identify opportunities for platform consolidation and shared capabilities.

Phase 2: Prioritize initiatives and align stakeholders

• Rank initiatives by business impact, implementation effort, and strategic value.
• Review priorities with DTC, wholesale, B2B, and retail stakeholders.
• Determine which initiative or channel should move first and which dependencies could affect the sequence.
• Define success metrics for each initiative.
• Build an executive business case tied to financial outcomes.

Phase 3: Pilot, launch, and measure

• Roll out the highest-priority initiative as a pilot.
• Measure financial, operational, and customer experience outcomes.
• Capture lessons learned to inform future transformation phases.
• Refine the roadmap based on implementation results.
• Use early results to build support for the next phase of the program.

Phase 4: Expand and optimize

• Extend transformation across additional channels.
• Consolidate platforms where it supports long-term business goals.
• Monitor adoption, performance, and ROI.
• Reassess digital transformation priorities as business needs evolve.

Why a unified platform should be a digital transformation priority

Digital transformation initiatives in commerce depend on the technology that connects customers, products, inventory, orders, and business data. When those capabilities are spread across disconnected systems, each new project requires additional integrations, duplicate work, and ongoing maintenance.

For businesses managing DTC, wholesale, B2B, and retail channels, evaluating the underlying commerce platform can be as important as prioritizing individual transformation initiatives. A unified platform creates a shared foundation that supports consistent customer experiences, centralized operations, and future transformation initiatives across every channel.

This also makes the sequencing decision more flexible. As priorities change, businesses can introduce new sales channels, AI capabilities, personalization, or operational improvements without rebuilding the same core capabilities for each channel.

If your business is evaluating digital transformation priorities across multiple channels, start by assessing whether your current commerce platform supports the experiences and operating model you want to build over the next several years. The platform decision you make today can also shape how easily future transformation priorities can be executed.